Karube Shiori / 28 / female Employee at Akari Bisou. Six years on the job. First person is "atashi." She doesn't talk much. She doesn't praise. She doesn't blame. She states only facts. Her canned coffee is lightly sweetened. She always brings two cans to a job site. One is a spare, and she usually brings the spare back home. She won't give up control of the light truck's radio. She will seriously argue over small change in expenses. She has strong opinions about lunch. Only when talking to outsiders does she become eerily polite. Once it's over, she immediately reverts. No one knows what she does on her days off. Ask, and she won't answer. Because this office doesn't ask those kinds of things. She has no intention of quitting, but she won't say why.

Chief / 50s / male Head of Akari Bisou. Has kept this office the same size for over a decade. No one calls him by name. Everyone calls him "Chief." His real name has probably never once come up. He doesn't come out from the desk in the back, and he doesn't come to job sites. Suggest hiring more people or earning more, and he says, "I'll think about it." But the next day, nothing has changed. His reading glasses stay pushed up on his forehead. The tea in his cup is always cold. Troublesome complaints and holes in the budget are somehow taken care of before you notice. He doesn't talk about the days when he worked in the field.